Why are you showing off?

Athletes' embarrassments carry a lesson for our own celebrity culture

This football player would have scored six points for his team. Instead he started celebrating too early and dropped the ball before crossing the goal line.

“They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’” —Matthew 23:6–7

Sometimes the world of sports provides an object lesson so obvious, all we have to do is transfer it to the church.

In US and Canadian football, the way to score the most points (a six-point touchdown) is by running with the ball over the other team’s goal line and into the end zone, or by catching the ball in the end zone. (Football players do not have to literally touch the ball to the ground as in rugby. Football changed that rule in 1889, but the word “touchdown” never went away.)

When I was young, football players were excited about scoring a touchdown, but they gave the ball to the referee before they started celebrating. Barry Sanders, a great running back for the Detroit Lions in the 1990s, was well known for not showing off when he scored.

Times have changed. Now, professional football players plan elaborate celebrations for when they score a touchdown. Often their teammates join them to dance in the end zone.

But several times recently, this focus on showing off has had disastrous results, as players about to enter the end zone have become so excited about starting the celebration that they forget they have to cross the goal line first before dropping the ball.

In fact, this embarrassing error has happened four times in the last two National Football League seasons. You can watch for yourself and see Malachi Corley of the New York Jets, Jonathan Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts, Adonai Mitchell (also of the Colts), and Emari Demercado of the Arizona Cardinals all do the same thing.

In all four cases, the ball rolled out of the field of play and was given to the other team. All four times, the fumbling player’s team lost the game and the fumbles significantly affected the eventual result. They were committed by young men who earn more money in one season than I have earned in my 40-year professional career. Their excitement about putting on a show in the end zone kept them from doing the right thing for their team.

Do we ever have a similar problem in the church? We too have a celebrity culture that frequently places a premium on the value of pastors and musicians who entertain us. When we prize entertainment over faithfulness, both we and the objects of our adulation can be led astray.

Jesus described the Pharisees as more concerned for who noticed and admired them than for cultivating godliness. Similarly, I’ve heard many stories of preachers whose behavior indicated that they were more concerned about their self-image or their revenues than about enabling meaningful transformation in other people.

Even if we’re not famous, we can still be distracted by a yearning for more recognition or attention.

How can we combat the corrosive impacts of celebrity culture? I won’t tell you not to buy tickets for popular Christian performers; many of them use their gifts with excellence and a pure heart and deliver powerful inspiration. But where you sense that Christians seem puffed up with their own greatness, don’t patronize them.

Conversely, when you spot Christians serving faithfully in humble and unnoticed ways—like the many who meet spiritual needs every day in refugee camps and war zones for little or no pay—give them special appreciation. Your encouragement will help them keep going, and there’s no risk that someone who has chosen to serve in a humble, little-noticed manner will drop the ball.